Ledger Live and "Jersey Sting" authors Josh Margolin and Ted Sherman recently visited the Garfield Avenue site in Jersey City that was at the center of the government sting that led to dozens of arrests and more than 20 guilty pleas in corruption cases connected to the Operation Bid Rig III.

As he made the rounds handing out thousands of dollars in cash in late 2008 and 2009 to politicians ahd the politically-connected, government informant Solomon Dwek (a.k.a. David Esenbach) told his targets that he was building a sprawling condo development on Garfield Avenue, a chromium-tainted wasteland that on the face of it would appear an implausible location for 750 luxury apartments.

But as Margolin and Sherman explain to Ledger Live, the pols, eager for easy cash -- or in at least one case, out to sell Dwek other land -- kept accepting money from Dwek and promising assistance with zoning changes and environmental sign-offs.

In August 2009, The Jersey Journal ran a story headlined "Who'd Believe It?" pointing out how far-fetched Dwek's story would have seemed to anyone remotely familiar with the stretch of Garfield Avenue he was saying he intended to turn into a luxury condo complex.

And today, The Ledger breaks the story that Harold "Bud" Demellier -- a key Democratic strategist who ran Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy's 2009 re-election campaign and is a Hudson County employee -- has admitted that Dwek paid him $20,000 in cash for consulting work.